my ukulele progress

Nothing new to really report. I have just been making planned progress.

I have been cementing my understanding of the first seven frets by using the Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian modes. All I am doing is playing mindfully. With the ukulele it is easy to be unmindful. It is easy to learn a pattern and to learn where to start it in order to play it. However you don't really know what you're playing. So, as I'm playing these patterns, I am paying close attention to where my finger is and what note it is. Sometimes I even say the notes out loud to reinforce it all.

So, as I said, I'm playing from the G string the G# Phrygian, the A Lydian, and the B Mixolydian. From the C string in the same general vicinity I have the C# Aiolian, D# Lokrian, and E Ionian. When I'm playing my Yorkie, I can switch back and forth...since that's the beauty of the linear tuning.

Speaking of my Yorkie, my mind has been much occupied with it lately. First of all, it is beautiful and who wouldn't contemplate it:

42235715_1870024039754585_6308754487590780928_o.jpg

However, I have been focusing more on its sound. I designed it to be quite un-ukulele-ish. It is very warm...even murky. I sometimes forget (or grow accustomed to) its voice. It isn't until I play it back-to-back with the Kamaka that the point is driven home. The Kamaka with its spruce sound board
IMG_0550.jpg

is meant to be very uke-y. And it is. It rings and echoes and chimes like a bell. The key is to love each instrument for its own merits instead of trying to tweak it to change it into something it isn't. And speaking of its own merits, I love my Yorkie's fretboard. If you look closely you will see that it is unencumbered with fret markers. Again, that is by design. The Yorkie is all about me and since I cannot see the markers, why should they be there? For an audience's sake? Since I play with a strap, all I see is the back of the neck. It is a lovely sight being English walnut, but there's no need for markers.

Since I'm talking about my wonderful Julius Medina straps (maybe some day my wife can take a picture of them for me to upload), it reminded me of a certain thread that is current on the forum devoted to the question of "how do I hold my ukulele tightly?" I haven't contributed to it because my contribution would undoubtably be somewhat trollish since my response is "why on earth would you want to tightly hold an instrument?" That physical tension translates into a musical tension. It muffles the sound...not to mention all the ergonomic problems. And ergonomics and the over-all experience of the body playing music is important to me. When I am lazy and don't use my strap my body is hunched over the ukulele. When I use the strap, my posture is good and if I want to see the fretboard, then I have to either tilt the instrument up or bend at the thoracic spine and crane my neck.

Since I have been a little more visual today, let me try an experiment. Let's see how it looks if I import a table from a word processing program to represent fret board fingerings of, e.g., the Aiolian mode.

o​
o​




o​

o​
o​


o​
o​
o​






well, it did work but it is rather huge, isn't it?


G
C
E
A
1 fret
o
o




2 fret




o


3 fret
o
o




4 fret
o
o
o


5 fret









That's a little better. It is a representation of the Aiolian mode played from the G string. It is of course movable so that if you play it starting on the first fret you're playing the G# Aiolian. However, if you start from the 6th fret, you're playing C# Aiolian.

For the curious, here's the same mode played on a re-entrant tuning:


G
C
E
A
1 fret


o




2 fret




o
o
3 fret


o




4 fret


o
o
o
5 fret




o



As you can see, it is the same pattern as the linear pattern except that you need to slide your hand up a fret for the E string.

Okay, this is kind of time-consuming, but I can see that it has pedagogical value. I could very easily map out my modes and major/minor pentatonics.

Speaking of which, I need to brush up on my major pentatonics because they will be the key to transitioning between pentatonic stuff and modal stuff. That's because the major pentatonic, as the name suggests, contains notes from the major scale. Those notes are common with the modes--all of which are comprised of the same notes. And the connection betwixt the major and minor pentatonics are the tonic and dominant, the E and B. All this is predicated on smooth transitions. However, I can just force a transition wherever I want. Just do it twice and it is no longer a mistake but a pre-meditated purposeful dissonance (1st principle of jazz :))
 
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I've been working on an idea I had. Perhaps this is something that self-evident to someone with formal training, but I bethought myself to play just the top of the pentatonic shapes horizontally instead of playing the scale vertically. That leaves us with some barre chords. Here they are in E:

2232
4455
7777
991010
12111212
14141514
16161717
19191919

Some of these shapes are familiar as m7's or 6/9's. I don't know what to do with the barre chords. I have strummed them and I have finger picked them. They have some potential in stop-time blues where you vacillate between chords and finger picking. And I wonder if they could serve any purpose in transitioning between major and minor pentatonics.

I have already noted above that the 2nd barre chord is 4455. The 2nd barre of the major pentatonics is 4444. I could descend the minor scale, end with the 4455 chord, move to the 4444 chord, and--bam--I'm in the major. It works because our ears forgive chords more than notes in terms of dissonance.

So let me work out the major barres:

1122
4444
6677
9899
11111211
13131414
16161616
18181919


Speaking of transitioning between minor and major pentatonics, here's what I found useful for smooth transitions:

1. be playing in a minor pentatonic shape
2. hang out on the B since the B and the E are the only common notes to both scales.
3. transition to a note in the major pentatonic that is rather far away from the B but not too far away. I like C#. It is a bit dissonant since we are expecting a D. However I smooth over that, by using some bending as cover. If you leave the notes pure, then the half-step difference is more evident
4. now play major pentatonic...or any mode since modes use the same notes as the major pentatonic.
 
Well, the humidity in my Kamaka's case dipped to 29%. So it was time to bust out the humidifiers.

I've been working on reading some Hellenistic Greek poetry in my spare time. So my ukes have taken a back seat. I have basically been improvising pentatonics at a greater speed. I will say that I have to work on my phrasing and repetitions. I am getting faster and more fluid, but that's just creating a denser wall of notes with as much significance. And I could also use more major pentatonics.

I would also like to work a drone into the mix. If I use the G string to drone, that G is the mediant of E. I think you're supposed to use the tonic as a drone, but it seems to me that anything in the key could work although it may sound less than traditional.

I'm going on vacation for a week and I am not going to bring a uke with me. That's too much hassle.

I just saw a lively little thread devoted to whether or not people use tablets. I use graph paper.
 
I've been on vacation for a few weeks, but I'm glad to see that the ukulele boards are still rife with the silliness that we've all grown to expect and enjoy. To wit, a thread showing that if you're a professional musician, like Overdriver Duo, then you don't need expensive ukuleles...as long as you have expensive recording hardware and software as well as a full complement of post-production tools. It reminds me of an old video I saw in which Zakk Wylde played some Black Sabbath on a Hello Kitty guitar--similarly proving that you don't need an expensive guitar, pick-ups, or even a plectrum.

I didn't bring any instruments on my trip. Too much of a hassle and risk.

Now that I am back I need to re-orient myself and recount my goals to get back on track.

1. I am still dedicated to focusing on the key of E to see how much I can squeeze out of this one key. This has actually been a very important aspect to my progress. In this day and age, when technology has reduced our attention span to that of a kitten, it is instructive to dig deeper into one solitary thing without getting distracted by every other bead and bauble that you cross.

I am using the key of E, and the associated modes, to memorize my fretboard more thoroughly. At this point in time, I am focusing on the first seven frets. In linear tuning, the phrygian, lydian, and mixolydian modes span those frets. In re-entrant tuning, the same space is occupied by the aiolian, lokrian, and ionian modes. So, on my custom Yorkie (which can play both tunings), I have been running through the modes and improvising with the modes with the emphasis of saying the notes out loud and looking at the fretboard to beat those notes into my memory through as many corporeal holes (eyes, ears, mouth) as possible. Of course I do take little excursions away from the goal. For example, when I was hovering around the fourth fret I noticed that the E and the B thereat sounded like that opening riff of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik of Mozart. So, of course, I had to pursue that for a few moments until I figured out the entire riff. By and large, I do stick to the plan.

I am also using the E pentatonics to approach this same goal from a different tack. They are mostly the same notes as the modes, except the minor pentatonic sports a G instead of a F# and a D instead of a D#. Aside from that, it is the same set of notes--just a different paradigm.

The problem with the pentatonics is that my fingers know where to go to play them, but my mind doesn't know what note is being played. I suppose that is the blessing and the curse of stringed instruments. However it is holding me back a bit. I want to move away from playing within the established shapes. In my orderly mind, that means jumping from a certain shape and playing the same note on a different string in a different shape. I know that's confusing. Here's what I mean. If I'm noodling around in the leading tone shape, eventually I want to land on the G that's on the third fret. However, when it comes time to play that G, if instead I zip up and play the G on the 7th fret, the notes are the same so that it still sounds like I am in the leading tone shape even though I am in the mediant shape. Now I can continue onward and effectively fuse these two shapes.

2. Aside from that fretboard mastery goal, I have another goal that i have been putting off. It is 4th string droning. I really want to learn to provide my own bass line. I think one of my problems is that I don't want to play "Mary had a little lamb" or "Go tell Aunt Rody" or any other song; I just want to play my own stuff. So I think the easiest way to ease into this technique is to wind up the metronome and slowly practice plucking the G string on the first beat, and play my own notes on the other three. I have heard that the drone is supposed to be the tonic note of your key. That would mean that I need to play some stuff from a G minor pentatonic. However I think I will try to experiment with something else. The G is the dominant of my key. So I think I will try to stay in the comfort zone of E and play E minor pentatonics with a dominant drone instead of a root drone. Time will tell.
 
I had been worrying about using the 4th string as a drone. It is conventionally a G and I had seen finger-style guitarists who said that the drone had to be the root of the key you were playing in. That means that I'd always have to play in G. That isn't the worst thing in the world since G is very comfortable. The G sits right there on the 7th fret and that is very comfortable for me. However, I naturally was repulsed by the idea of being so hemmed in. So I contacted a well-known performer and asked his input. He said with G the following keys would work:

C, C minor, G, G minor, and E minor

In the first two, the G is the dominant; in the middle two the G is the root, and for the last one, the G is the third. So, taking this person's word as gospel, we can use the G as long as it is a rather important part of the scale: root (I chord), subdominant (III chord) or dominant (v chord). He added the caveat that the ear trumps all; so, do it unless it doesn't sound good with the particular melody that you're working with.

I've experimented a little bit with those keys. Of course, I am thrilled by the E minor since that's my key of choice. The G is nice too, but the C isn't my cup of tea. I have to play it at the 12th fret because I do not like playing it at the nut; it screws up my fingerings. I have my patterns memorized and those patterns use the index finger. When you play open strings, your index finger is eliminated and that messes with my head.


I was less than happy with the responsiveness of my Yorkie's 1st string. I was planning (and did) order some concert strings with less tension. I am reluctant to use them because they are clear and I don't think they look as good as dark strings (yeah, I'm that superficial). ThenI did the obvious, I down-tuned my Yorkie to C# F# A# D#, six half-steps away from the standard GCEA tuning and I love the tension and the strings. Of course you have to mind the 4th string when strumming. It will buzz a bit unless you mute it. But I love the fingerpicking. It is so muddy. When I finally put the concert strings on, there will be less tension and I will undoubtably have to uptune a bit. However for now I am happy.

I have been very, very loose in practicing lately. Tomorrow I will tighten things up and be a bit more focused.
 
I had a slight change of plans. I started off transitioning between major and minor pentatonics and G# phrygian and C# aiolian. I am finding that I like that slightly jarring note that happens in transitioning. For example, in the leading tone shape of the E minor pentatonic it is supposed to end on the D. But if, instead, you hit the C#, then that puts you in the dominant shape of the major pentatonic. If you phrase it right, it sounds good--kind of like a little musical hiccup that you planned, as opposed to sounding like you missed your mark.

I wasn't playing as thoughtfully as I had planned; I was just letting the shapes do their job. But then I conceived the desire to address a weakness of mine: The F#7. It came up because I saw in another thread a ragtime progression in D. I could see its formula easily enough:

I VI7 II7 V7 I

Since I play in E that translates to E C#7 F#7 B7 E. All the chords are simple as pie except that F#. I don't know why but it causes me all kinds of grief. So I thought I would practice it.

Obviously there are two choices in playing it. #1 is the four-finger version 3424 and #2 is the barre chord version 3421. The 3424 seems too tinny for me with that C# on the A string. I very much prefer the F# of the barre chord. To me it sounds more smooth. Anyway, to each his or her own, right? I was practicing a little blues progression in E into which I inserted an F#7 into its turnaround since F# is the dominant of the dominant, B. I turned the progression around by going to B7 (the traditional sound), then going to the F#7 creating a need for resolution, then going to the A7, which is the IV chord and which approaches the resolution without quite fulfilling it, and then hitting the B7. So it is a nice little swerve and I'll work on it 'til I can get that F#7.
 
I have been plugging away at my F# issue. A small part of the issue is my style. It may be a bad habit, but I have never really played with my hand perpendicular to the fret board. I have a slight angle. Because of this, it is sometimes cumbersome for me to play around the nut or with a capo. In this instance it is easier for me to form the F-shaped barre on the second fret, making a G major than it is to do the same thing with the F# on the first fret. However, I will adapt. One thing that helps is to shift the ukulele for the F#. I have been playing that ragtime progression from my previous entry as well as a blues progression in F#. The F# is coming along but it is still a bit slow. I have been strumming in syncopated 8th notes and sometimes I miss a beat while forming the F#. I could just slow things down to quarter notes, but the heart wants what it wants, and it wants eighth notes right now.

I have been reinforcing the F# shape by also playing the insipid I vi IV V progression in G. That allows me to form the F-shaped barre to get more practice. Overall this has been a rewarding experience. I'm learning a lot by inviting my demons to tea, as Nadine Gordimer would phrase it. If I undertake this type of thing again, I think the next chord to come to grips with would definitely be F minor. That one gives me fits as well. It is a very lovely chord but I don't play it very often. I suppose I could play a buttery blues progression in F minor.

Or something else to practice is implementing 6 chords. First of all, I don't have those firmly ensconced in my memory. Secondly, I am not too good at employing them. I know you can throw a 6 chord into a progression where you would expect a straight I or IV chord, but it never sounds right. Part of it is the inversion that is used, but for me an added complication is that the flavor of the 6th chord seems to be saying "caution! jazz ahead." But then you revert to standard chords and it all sounds mismatched. I would like to see what types of music and what types of chords would support a 6th chord substitution.

Anyway, I'm starting to babble. I ended my practice today by playing a riff I remembered from Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny. I don't know what key it actually is in, but I naturally transposed it to E, my pet key. It was basically the major scale
 
I learned a lesson. Rather, I internalized something that I knew intellectually. Part of my problem with the F#7 was that I wasn't thinking about making my transitions easy. I was just playing chords the way I always do. However, in this progression my standard way wasn't the easiest way. I usually play my E major chord with my index and ring finger. And I usually play barred dom7 chords with my middle fingers. But if I do that in this progression I have to make a fairly substantial shift when I move to the F#7. So I altered my fingerings so that the E was played with the index and middle finger; the same thing for the C#7. Then to move to the F#7 all I needed to do was move the middle finger over a string (and plant the ring finger). Once I made that change, then I could play my progression in 8th notes like I wanted to.

So it was very instructive. I had to remember to make things easier for me by not playing the same old chords in the same old way.

That was the big news on the ukulele front. I have also been practicing my modes and my E major pentatonics, but I haven't really digested what I'm doing, so that I could annotate what I am doing on paper. I'll think it over and commit my accomplishments on paper soon.
 
When playing chord melody, I finger the lead note and create the chord off that position. Sometimes, it takes finesse/dexterity or a chord substitution when the melody is complex.
 
Not always. The ear has a tendency to gravitate towards the brightest (highest) note played in a chord. I try to focus on creating chords around the melody in the song, rather than around the chord. This way you can keep the melody very steady and prominent, but use substitutions and different voicings for the chords.
 
Not always. The ear has a tendency to gravitate towards the brightest (highest) note played in a chord. I try to focus on creating chords around the melody in the song, rather than around the chord. This way you can keep the melody very steady and prominent, but use substitutions and different voicings for the chords.

Oh yeah. That's how I learnt to create chord melodies, using the high note. I just didn't know it was called a lead note. Thanks for the clarification.
 
Since I was re-filling my humidifiers, I re-acquainted myself with my Kamaka. I have been playing my Yorkie exclusively. When I tuned the Kamaka, I tuned it to E. I think in the past I had it tuned to D#. The strings were tight. They kind of hurt a bit and I was going to tune it down, but I didn't. I didn't because, if I did, it would just be to make it more like my Yorkie. But the Kamaka has its own voice.

I designed the Yorkie to be a bit lugubrious and muddy sounding. The Kamaka is meant to be a singer. It has a spruce sound board and it really resonates, and tighter strings make it louder and almost annoying bright. Of course the tighter strings don't bend as well or lend itself to ornamentation like glissando (or is it portamento?)--anyway, long slides.

The Kamaka takes some getting used to. It is re-entrant and I really miss having that fourth string to pick. And the chord inversions with that high G string are certainly different.

There's been some talk lately on the ukulele boards about things I had never considered: frets and neck shape. I noticed the kamaka has a different neck. My baritone has a semicircular neck shape. My Yorkie's neck is somewhat trapezoidal, like this graphic: (___) . It starts out round but then it is planed flat. The Kamaka's neck is a semicircle, but it is shaved down so that the curve is much tighter.

My immediate goal is to get acquainted with playing somewhere between the 10th and 12th frets. Previously I had been focusing on the first five frets. Around the 10th fret we have tonic shape for the major and minor pentatonic (in linear) as well as the mediant. There is also the subdominant and dominant shapes (in re-entrant). As far as modes go, there area of the fret board belongs to E ionian and D# Dorian (in linear) and the Lydian and Mixolydian (in re-entrant). I'm not too thrilled with those modes, except for the Dorian. But who knows? Maybe those vanilla modes will actually be interesting when combined with pentatonics. Maybe I could even work in some modal progressions. Let's see: the Dorian would be i ii v; the Lydian I II V; the Mixolydian I IV bVII. At least with the Lydian progression I could make use of my newfound ability to play an F#. And the Mixolydian is always good with that bVII. Those two would probably sound better with a major pentatonic since they are more majorish, whereas the Dorian is minor.
 
I've monkeying around with the A Lydian and B Mixolydian and the subdominant and dominant shapes of the minor pentatonic. Obviously A and B are the subdominant and dominant of E, so that these patterns all work well together. It makes for some unique sounding improv. There is a bit of an ebb and flow feel. The modes are major while the pentatonics are minor. So you go along in one quality for a while and then switch to the other quality.

I did this all on my Kamaka. I know the Kamaka has a sound that most people would prefer, but I still find the brightness, the loudness, and the echoes are somewhat less than natural to me.

Anyway, it is great to play those modes up there around the 12th fret because now I am starting to see the notes. In the past, when I looked down at my side markers while playing I saw those two close dots on the 10th and 12th frets. I knew one pentatonic pattern started in between those dots and that another started right below them. Now I am starting to see that it is a B between the dots and an A below them. Intellectually I always knew this, but now it is starting to be something more natural.

Obviously (at least to me) the next thing I will tackle are those three close side markers on the 15th, 17th and 19th frets. I can play down there by feel. I just know where the shapes are, but I don't know what I'm playing. I will change that soon.
 
My old computer died and instead of doing the whole data retrieval thing, I just threw it away. Sometimes you just have to burn down the house and walk away naked.

As far as the ukulele is concerned, I have been trying to create memories of certain locations on the fret board. Specifically I have been focusing on the C# of the 9th fret of the E string. I do things I really like at that location so that now when I look at that place on the fretboard I think about how much I like the note and how I can make that note as part of a riff based in A Lydian. Or how to use it as the last note of the C# aiolian or the last note of the leading tone shape of the E major pentatonic, which is the tonic shape of the C# minor pentatonic, the relative major of E minor.

That last sentence reminded me of my university days. I remember working on my German in the common kitchen area when Stefan, a student from Germany, walked in. He saw what I was doing and said that he was glad he knew German because he would hate to have to learn it!

I don't know music; I have to learn it. In fact, I need to over-learn it and then to un-learn it. That's my methodology. What I mean by that is that I use certain paradigms to systematically learn something. I practice and perfect that system until it gets to the point that the paradigm is no longer helpful but, rather, a hindrance. At this point, you need to undo the parameters of the paradigm so that you're permitted to think outside the box. That's where I am at right now. I am struggling to just see the C# as a C# and not an element of either the A lydian mode or the E major pentatonic scale. It is a work in progress.

However, the point is still there. I am enjoying that C# and I now have a personal relationship with that note and that place on the fret board. I have encoded it into my brain and when I look at my fret board I now immediately see that place as C#.
 
I haven’t written lately not because I haven’t been doing things, but I have been doing things that don’t lend themselves to writing.

I tend to think of myself as a soloist as opposed to an accompanist, and I practice that way. I have been practicing improvising which is my favorite thing to do. I have never really learned a song like most people do. I know my chords, I have timing, and I know how to strum. So I could learn a song if I wanted, but it always seem so robotic to me. I much prefer to create my own stuff. Right now my stuff is kind of ramblesome. However I recognize in that my nascent genius which hasn’t matured. I’m sure as I grow as a player, my stuff will get more refined and simplified.

And simplicity seems to be the distinction in music versus wanking around. Music commits to some notes and repeats them over and over again.

Anyway…

I had been enjoying myself with my focus around the 12th fret. Even though I haven’t squeezed everything I want from that, I am going to visit another neighborhood of the fret board. I want to get as comfortable with the top five frets as most people are with the lower five.

There are going to be some technical challenges. First of all, fingering. Do I use the same fingers up there as I would at a much lower fret? Secondly, the ghost bout. Even though I have a nice cutaway on my Yorkie, my hand still thinks there is an upper bout and arches up to get over the imaginary bout. I have to actually go into the space that has been cutaway and use it to play those upper frets. Lastly, there is some posture/body positioning I have to figure out. When you play frets that high, your land arm tends to stretch across your body and that creates some weird angles. I have to learn to shift the ukulele to the left (which is elementary since I am strapped) so that my left hand can play those upper frets just like it plays the lower ones.

Aside from those considerations, I sat down and planned out the basics—i.e. what scales are up there for me to use in my improv.

We have the B mixolydian and the E ionian at the 16th fret, D# lokrian at the 15th, and both the tonic and dominant pentatonic shapes at the 16th.

At first I was underwhelmed by those. However, I had the same feelings about the Lydian before I started playing it at the 9th fret. It will be good to use the ionian which is the most basic scale. I avoid it because it is so basic. However I remember the poet Alexander Pope saying that if one always avoids the hoi polloi, then one is ruled by them because they dictate all the movements.

Certain possibilities pop out to me immediately. I can see if I play the B mixolydian on all four strings, the A string’s notes are identical for the B mixolydian and the E ionian. So I could ascend on the mixolydian and descend on the ionian.

I also see possibilities in transitioning to things I like that are slightly lower. For example the C# and G# on the 16th frets are the low notes for the scales I have already mentioned. However, the C# is also the high note of the C# aiolian and the G# the phrygian.

As a reminder, the reason I am doing this is to learn the fret board. I am finding that it is like moving to a new town. At first your movements are very basic, keeping to the main streets. Soon, you find shortcuts and places you like. I find that holds true with the fret board. You get acquainted with the area and then find favorite notes and those notes become encoded in your brain because you go to them so often. For instance, in my last tryst to the 12th fret I became very fond of the A, B, and C# and now when I look at the fretboard, those notes pop out. Hopefully similar associations will happen for me at the higher frets as well.

I just had a thought. Perhaps as I go I should, for the sake of posterity, describe my methodologies for improvising. Obviously I am not that good and I have never received any training, but my ideas on the subject might be helpful to others. After all, it is hard to go from scales to music.
 
I have been significantly waylaid by work so that I haven't practiced my high frets as assiduously as I want.

There are some technique issues up there. My understanding is that one should use the same fingerings on high frets as one does on the low ones. However, it isn't practical. From what I've observed, guitarists observe this, but their frets are bigger and they are often playing legato. For the ukulele it isn't practical. So I'm taking it on a case by case basis. For example, if I play a C# aiolian on the 13th fret, I use the same fingering that I use on the 1st fret. If I play the dominant shape of the pentatonic on the 16th fret, I only use the index and ring fingers whereas when I play it on the 4th fret I use the index and pinky. Conversely, I tend not to use the pinky when playing the D# Lokrian on the 15th fret. The problem with the pinky and the high frets is that, at least on my hand, I have to kind of slide it under the other fingers so that my hand looks like I'm palsied.

Anyway, I haven't made much progress there, so I won't address it. But since I was playing the C# aiolian it naturally led me to my favorite harmonization for chord progressions: the harmonic minor. This one has it all: major and minor triads, an augmented chord, and diminished chords. I am doing one odd thing. The penultimate chord of this harmonization is a flatted VI---or C, in the key of E. I made a mistake and was playing D and I actually like it a lot. It serves as a passing chord to diminished D# which, in turn, is a passing chord to the E minor.

I saw a tutorial the other day pertaining to mixing chords and picking. Inspired by it, I started mixing my E minor chord with the dominant minor pentatonic shape. This sounds really good and it is really smooth because if you end the dominant shape on the E, your middle finger is fretting it. Then all you have to do is place your index and middle fingers to return to the E minor.

By the way, I am still having issues with the first position E minor chord, which is a tragedy in the making because that is such a pivotal chord.
 
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